The Newest Birth Control? A Tiny Implant You Switch On and Off

The idea of a teensy-tiny birth-control microchip implanted just under your skin—where it stays for 16 years (right now, no hormonal birth control lasts more than five years)—is cool enough to imagine. But here's the thing that's super amazing: You can actually turn this kind of birth control on and off whenever needed, using a remote control.

Backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, this new contraceptive chip dispenses 30 micrograms a day of levonorgestrel—a hormone that's already used in several kinds of birth control. But you can also regulate it! When and if you decide you're ready to try to conceive, you can simply click a small remote control and turn off the chip.

During the course of 16 years, I, myself, would probably lose this remote control. But the idea is still intriguing!